


Moments, Seconds, and Everything In Between

by missanonyma



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Varchie!Centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:21:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missanonyma/pseuds/missanonyma
Summary: one shots, drabbles, and blurbs
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	1. 23

Bath time. 

Archie loves baths with his girlfriend, he loves the nice smelling bubbles and the warm water, but overall just the comfortable feeling of being with Veronica. 

Other than the bed, they’ve probably spent most of their time in the tub since they moved in together. They can listen to music or they can just talk about their days, from the comfort of being naked and cuddling.

They both have very different schedules, with both of them fresh out of college, Archie just started as a music teacher at a local private school and Veronica’s getting back into the fashion industry as a designer, which is very welcomed by the public as before she moved to Riverdale she was a fairly well known model. But they both make time for each other no matter what.

“You’re so pretty,” he whispers into her ear, squeezing her hip. She giggles happily, leaning into him. “We should have a baby. Imagine how cute it’d be.”

“Archie!” she turns around in his arms, laughing and giving him an insane look. “We’re 23! We’re not even married!”

He shrugs a single shoulder, “I don’t care. I want 5 kids,” he insists, pulling her to straddle his lap and presses kisses across her collarbone. 

“I am not pushing five babies out of me,” she says seriously, not fazed when he rests his cheek on her chest and makes puppy dog eyes up at her.

“Four?”

She shakes her head, “2. 3 at most.”

He groans frustratedly and buries his face in her chest, “I wanna get you pregnant so bad.”

“Propose first,” she challenges.

“I can’t! You said you won’t say yes until your first fashion line is out!”

“Guess you’re out of luck then,” she shrugs, kissing the top of his head. 

She won’t budge though, he’ll have to wait a year, because at 23 years old her career is most important to her as it should be. That means they’ll be engaged at 24, married at 25, and have their first baby by 26. Plenty of time for her to start her career strong before she becomes a family woman.

She grips the hair on the back of his head, pulling his head up to face her.

“I want you to get me pregnant too, Archiekins, I don’t want to have kids with anyone else,” she whispers, pressing her forehead against as he grins at her statement. “Just not yet.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t practice, though, y’know for when it’s time,” he teases her, holding her closer and capturing her bottom lip between his.

Fridays.

They have a tradition that on Friday nights they can order whatever take out they want, then cuddle up on the couch and talk about their weeks. Personally Veronica’s favorite stories of Archie’s are the ones where the high school girls he teaches figure out he’s dating ‘The Veronica Lodge - the famous model and designer’ and try to get him to bring her to school one day.

“I swear one day they’re going to steal my phone and call you or something,” he laughs, looking at her from the other side of the couch while he rubs her feet. “They all want you to come and give them free clothes.”

Veronica got a lot of press when she left New York as a teenager, tabloids spreading rumors about her going to rehab or her father sending her to Swedish boarding school. So when she returned for college, even if she wasn’t a working model anymore, the paparazzi would follow her just like they used to in her Spence days.

In fact Archie never really realized the extent of her fame, always assuming she was being a tad over dramatic about it, until he himself got his photo on a popular gossip website. They had referred to him as a ‘Handsome Redhead Rumored to be Dating Veronica’.

“How did they even find out? I don’t get papped anymore since they realized I wasn’t still the ‘Wild Child of the Upper West Side’,” she raises an eyebrow. 

“Because they follow your instagram,” he says, hiding an embarrassed look. She realizes immediately what he means, she has posted many shirtless photos of her boyfriend on there, so if his students saw those…

She bursts out laughing, almost doubling over as he shoots her an unimpressed look. 

“It’s not funny.”

“Oh on the contrary, darling, this is hilarious,” she says, still laughing, scooting closer to him.

“If I get fired or sued by their parents it’s your fault,” he reluctantly drapes his arm around her shoulders.

“You won’t, no one would do you any harm for simply looking delectable.”

She kisses his ears that are quickly turning bright red.

“I’m willing to let them look, as a public service, but only I can touch,” she saids pointedly, nuzzling her nose into his cheek. He chuckles, loving how his skin tingles as she runs her hands all over his torso.

Love letters.

Veronica’s favorite thing Archie does is when he leaves her little notes everywhere for her to find. He leaves them literally everywhere, from inside her wallet for her to find in the middle of the day to stuck inside a book where her bookmark left off.

He writes very romantic things on them, like I can’t wait to kiss your beautiful smile next time I see you or I’m so glad you’re in my life, I can’t imagine a future without you in it. Or sometimes he writes rather explicit things, You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen being the PG version.

Honestly she loves them, it makes her day a little brighter when she has a hard day at work and goes home to find a little love note in her favorite coffee mug.

The only issue she has with it, is when they fall into the hands of others. For example, Kevin came over on Halloween to get ready with her for the party at their favorite bar they were meeting their friends at. And when he opened her eye shadow palette a note fell out, despite Veronica’s attempts to take it from him, he read it.

“VERONICA LODGE!” he shrieked, eyes wide and mouth open as he smiled in shock. “I knew you were a kinky freak but Archie?!”

“Shut up,” she grumbled, her cheeks bright pink (a rare feat for her) as she grabbed the note from his palm and stuck it in her purse.

Another event she prefers not to think about is when she invited Betty to shop for Christmas gifts for Archie and Jughead, and she opened her glasses case to put her glasses on (because sometimes she prefers them over contacts) and a note fell out. 

She didn’t even notice anything fell until apparently Betty picked it up and read it, she quickly shoved it in Veronica’s palm and kept her face down embarrassed.

“I think Archie wants you to wear your yoga pants,” she says, quietly, hiding her amused grin though the rest of her face is bright red.

But today was when she had finally had enough. She was having such a good day, and she was just stopping by Betty and Jughead’s apartment to pick up her jacket she’d left there the other night, and low and behold there was a note in the pocket she hadn’t found yet.

Jughead hands her both the jacket and slip of paper adding a sly, “Well I know what and who you’re doing tonight.”

She flipped him off before storming out of the apartment building.

“Archie Andrews!” she shouts, slamming the door to their apartment and walking inside to find him cuddled up in bed already, looking much more innocent than his little notes. He looked genuinely frightened, like he often did whenever she was angry but she wasn’t worried about how he felt right now.

“The notes, Archie, they need to stop,” she sighs, crossing her arms and standing at the foot of the bed.

“You don’t like them anymore? Did I upset you?” he asks genuinely, sitting up and looking at her like he’s scared he made her uncomfortable. Her angry facade falls when she sees how worried he is, she walks over cups his cheeks.

“No, I have no issue with them, but I’d rather not have them appearing at inconvenient times for our friends to find and read.”

He blushes but nonetheless grins, “I’m sorry, Ronnie. Anyway I can make it up to you?”

What she says next puts one of the largest smiles she’s ever seen on his handsome face.

“How about instead of writing down what you want to say, you just tell me in person? Or better yet, show me.”

Kisses.

Veronica’s always been obsessed with kissing Archie, it’s been something she’s loved to do since she was 16. It’s obvious even to her that their love language is physical touch, at least hers is. Archie is much better at communicating than her, but they meet somewhere in the middle.

She loves to kiss his cheek sweetly in passing, when he’s busy grading homework assignments and has to focus, she can just lean down and let him know she’s there.

She loves to take her time too, when they have the time to spend the whole day in bed, she likes to kiss all over his body. She leaves hickeys wherever she wants too, because it’s only fair she gets to leave them on him after he decorates her thighs with his bruising kisses.

Another one of her favorites is when they’re in the middle of sex, and the tone is more romantic than hard, he tends to nudge his nose against hers in an eskimo kiss. She finds it adorable, and makes her heart flutter.

Truthfully she loves kissing Archie in any sort of way. It probably shouldn’t make her as giddy as it does after being with him for almost 8 years, but she doesn’t care. She’ll kiss her boyfriend whenever damn time she feels like it.

“Oh! Oh! Yea- Damn it!”

Veronica sighs frustratedly, setting her book and finally accepting she won’t be able to read with the racket coming from the living room. Clearly she underestimated the noise level that came along with Moose and Reggie coming over to watch the game.

She pads out into the living room, clutching Archie’s sweatshirt around her tighter, she leans over the back of the couch and wraps her arms around his shoulders.

“Baby, how much longer is the game gonna go on for? I miss you,” she coos in his ear, rubbing her nose against it tenderly. 

“It’s only the third quarter, Ron.”

She huffs, only knowing what that means after spending three years as a cheerleader so she was forced to figure out how football worked. She simply ducks down a bit more and begins sucking on his neck carefully, hoping it will bring some sort of reaction from Archie that would be positive for her case of boredom.

“Ew, V Lo, can’t you do that later?” Reggie says, making a grossed out face. She rolls her eyes and decides if she’s going to spend her night watching football, she’s doing it on her own terms.

“Move,” she demands, forcing Reggie to move from the couch to the armchair, and seats herself on Archie’s lap. She runs her fingers through his hair and kisses the top of his head when he rests his head on her chest, eyes still fixated on the screen.

Eventually she ends up falling asleep in the crook of his neck, and only wakes up when he’s already carried her to bed.

“Goodnight, babe,” he whispers, pecking her lips, unaware she’s awake. She smiles to herself when he turns out the light and wraps his arms around her.

Birthdays.

Archie and Veronica love celebrating each other’s birthday. The couple have become rather particular about making sure the other has the most amazing day possible.

Veronica always does so much for Archie’s birthday, from expensive gifts to extravagant desserts to birthdays that get just even better every year, she always goes all out. 

But Archie can’t help but feel like he doesn’t do enough to show her how much he appreciates her sometimes, which is why he was determined to make her birthday this year her best yet.

He woke her up with morning sex, the best way to start the day in the words of his girlfriend. Then he made her coffee and had her favorite chocolate almond croissant from Bean and Beluga delivered so she could enjoy it in bed.

He made reservations at a fancy rooftop restaurant where they met up with Kevin, Moose, Betty, and Jughead for lunch. Unwillingly, he said goodbye to her and Kevin and Betty whisked her off to do a shopping spree at all their favorite designer stores.

By then his credit card was already sweating but he managed to pull together enough money for dinner at her favorite restaurant, just them two. To top it off he surprised her with a tiny ruby pendant to add to the chain of her locket, he told her he knows pearls are more her thing but he thought the red would remind her of him.

“Archie, you really didn’t have to do all of this, I would’ve been perfectly happy with pizza and a movie,” she says, looking over at him. Their fingers are intertwined as they walk back to their apartment.

“No you wouldn’t have,” he laughed, glancing at her as she hides her smile.

“Yes I would’ve! I’ve become very happily accustomed to your world, Archie Andrews.”

“Yes well maybe you would’ve been okay with it, but I wouldn’t,” he pulls her into a hug while they wait for their turn to cross the street. “I like spoiling you when I can.”

“Mmm, well it’s appreciated,” she giggles, digging her chin into his chest to look up at him as best she can. He cranes his neck to kiss the tip of her nose, finding it adorable how pink it turns in the cold evening air.

“Besides if I didn’t make sure you had a good birthday what the hell kind of boyfriend would I be?”

“An ex boyfriend,” she stated simply, pulling him by the hand as they continued on their walk home. Her comment just furthers the silly stupid grin on his face. All he does is keep quiet, enjoying the comfortable silence in their private bubble, thankful for the brightest thing in his life.


	2. Father of Two

Archie loves fatherhood. He thought his life was perfect when he met his wife, then he felt unstoppable when she married him. To Archie’s surprise he actually could feel even better, because the day both his children were born were the best days of his life.

He remembers when Amelia, their first born, was about to be delivered. Veronica was so scared, but she still looked beautiful to him. Her skin glistening with sweat, her hair sticking to her neck while she cried out in pain. She held his hand so tight and she told him they were never having sex again.

But it was all worth it when the nurse laid their baby girl on her chest, he had never seen his wife more at peace than when she first held Amelia. The feeling was the same when Arthur was born, he remembers how he watched Veronica help their daughter in holding the newborn.

Archie loves his kids and his wife, which is why he took it upon himself to arrange a night out for Veronica and her friends. He read about motherhood guilt, and he remembers how hard it was for her to leave Amelia for the first time. But Artie was born 6 months ago and he knows how drained she is, and he just wants to do this for her.

So tonight is his first official night as a solo father of two.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this? I could call my mom and she could help you,” Veronica offers as she kisses Amelia goodbye before the little girl runs off to look for her favorite doll.

“No, babe, I got this, easy stuff. It’ll be fine, go have fun,” he insists, lips curling upwards when she steps closer to caress Artie’s head cradled in Archie’s arms.

“Okay, but call me if you need me to come home,” her expression is stern and he knows she’s serious.

“I will,” he nods, though he definitely won’t. He kisses her goodbye and waves to Betty and the other girls all piled into Cheryl’s car.

He can’t stop himself from watching her walk away, enjoying the sway of her hips in that dress. Veronica’s very self conscious about how her body has changed since both of the births, but in Archie’s eyes she’s only more beautiful. She’s just… filled out in her chest and bottom. A lot, he thinks, wondering if she’ll be too tired when she comes home for Mommy and Daddy time.

He doesn’t think he’s been alone alone with her since last week, while Amelia was at a playdate and Artie was napping, so he joined her in the shower. 

He glances down and remembers he’s holding his infant son and abandons all R rated thoughts. His big eyes shine up at him, making blush creep up his neck like he’s been caught.

“What’re you looking at buddy,” Archie grins, poking the baby’s nose, as if five seconds ago he wasn’t thinking of doing unholy thing’s the mother of this child.

Things go well at first. Amelia is his perfect little girl, climbing onto her seat at the dining table and eating her dinner while Archie sits beside her, burping Artie and getting ready to put him down for the night.

But things go south quickly when Amelia decides she isn’t interested in her normal night time routine.

“No! No bath!” she screams at the top of her lungs, her three year old arms flailing and smacking Archie in the face as he attempts to get her out of her clothes and into the warm bubble bath. Artie, cooing to himself, lays happily on the changing table and tries to stick his foot in his mouth.

It’s not until now that he really understood why people say Amelia is a mini version of Veronica, and Artie is Archie’s mini me. His daughter has a certain look about her, it’s very intimidating and it’s almost like looking into the eyes of an angry Veronica.

Meanwhile Artie hasn’t a care in the world and is completely oblivious to anything happening around him.

“Amelia Valentina Andrews you need to take a bath!” Archie says sternly back. Amelia screams even louder then goes so far as to bite his finger, then runs out of the bathroom to hide.

“Amelia!” he shouts, getting very frustrated with the girl, and then sees Artie through the doorway. He’s on his hands and knees as he has been practicing his balance in order to start crawling soon. But the little boy is much too close to the edge of the table for Archie’s liking and sure enough in slow motion it seems the baby slips and begins to fall towards the floor.

Like something out of his old football days, Archie dives towards him and manages to just catch Artie just before he hits the floor. Archie’s panting and has terror stricken on his face, meanwhile his son is still nothing but content. 

“Oh my god, I almost let my kid get brain damage,” he mumbles. “Veronica’s gonna kill me.”

He makes eye contact with Artie, his body still in shock and hasn’t moved from his position sprawled on the floor.

“Don’t tell Mommy.”

And just when he thinks things can’t get any worse, he hears a loud boom from the kitchen. 

Cradling his son to his chest, he sprints towards the noise and finds that in some attempt to reach the candy jar on the top shelf of the pantry, his daughter has knocked down almost all of the boxes. Including the tub of protein powder, which his wife thinks is disgusting how he doesn’t even put it in anything but swallows it from the package, that has now coated all of the kitchen floor in white dust.

“It’s snowing!” Amelia cheers and lays on her back to make ‘snow angels’. Archie’s face is nothing short of pitiful at this point. 

He wonders if Veronica would be mad at him if he slipped their daughter Temazepam.

“Okay! That’s it!” Archie takes his daughter kicking and screaming over his shoulder, then places her in the bathtub clothes and all. 

Archie occupies the baby by placing a towel over his head and Artie tries to escape while Archie swiftly washes and rinses Amelia’s hair. His son really isn’t the brightest, but the home videos his mom made a spectacle of showing at Artie’s baby shower proved he was the same when he was Artie age.

“I want Mommy!” she cries, tears streaming down her cheeks while Archie dries her off and puts her in her nightgown.

“Me too, kiddo, me too.”

He’s able to distract Amelia by letting her watch TV in his and Veronica’s bed, her favorite thing to do because their bed is ‘so big’, while he rocks Artie and puts him to bed. After sweeping the kitchen floor and restoring the pantry to its former glory, he puts on his own pajamas and lays down beside Amelia.

“What are we watching?” he asks, eyes growing droopier by the minute.

“The stocks,” the three year old says back to him. Archie chuckles quietly, Amelia loves watching the live footage of the stock market because she likes guessing what’s going to go up and what’s going to go down. Her mother’s daughter, he thinks to himself.

When Amelia is sound asleep, he tucks her into her own bed and returns to his, feeling relief when he hears the click of the front door unlocking. 

“Was it awful?” Veronica asks when she finds him cuddled up in their bed. She grins, laying her hands on his chest to lean over him and run her fingers through his hair soothingly.

“Nothing I can’t handle. I told you I got this,” he whispers, eyes starting to shut from pure exhaustion.

“Get some sleep, babe,” she says, kissing his forehead and leaving him to his dreams. He makes a mental note to just let her call her mom next time.


	3. 16

  1. Classes together.



Before Veronica Lodge, teachers never had any real problem with Archie. He was an average student and any lack of understanding he had, he made up for with his kind nature and bright smile. 

But then Riverdale High received its newest student, a gorgeous former heiress from the city and it caused an uproar against the male population (and even some of the females too). But all was put to rest when a few months into the school the new girl was locked down by none other than Archie Andrews. And it was then the teachers of Riverdale High began to realize how bothersome the red head could be.

Archie has three classes with Veronica; French, History, and Chemistry. 

In French class, Archie hasn’t gotten a good grade on an assignment in three months because he spends all of class staring at his girlfriend from across the room, watching her lips move and listening to her talk in a foreign language. 

The teacher then usually tries to ask him a question, because it’s obvious he’s not listening, but all he does is shrug and say, “Oui.”

In History class, things are better but not much. He’s become notorious in this class to have year round allergies, because he’s always getting up to go get tissues, because the box is next to Veronica’s desk. 

This backfired when the teacher started keeping the tissues on Archie’s desk so he would stay put.

And in Chemistry, things are the worst, because oftentimes he’ll become so entranced watching her from across the room he’ll forget what he’s doing even if it’s a chemical experiment. Which is how he set off the fire alarm. Twice. 

And even once, like something out of a movie, he made something explode and in a puff of smoke he had soot all over his face. The clean spot being his eyes after removing his protective goggles.

And Veronica finds it all very funny, giggling whenever she notices he’s gotten in trouble because he’s been looking at her. She always teases him saying she’s going to switch classes so he can get some work done, to which he promises he’ll try harder.

But the next day will always be the same as the last, and Fred Andrews will receive  _ another  _ note from Archie’s teachers saying he needs to focus more in class.  
  


  1. Study dates (that aren’t for studying).



“Yeah, Mom, we’re just gonna study. We have a huge English test on Friday and I promised I’d help Archie study,” Veronica says, gesturing at the English textbook on the dining room table. He hides the slight offense he takes due to the fact their cover story apparently consists of him being academically challenged, which isn’t untrue but still.

“Alright, well I’ll be gone a few hours so just order pizza or something for dinner,” Hermione says waving to the two of them and heading out to her meeting, or to go shopping, or something. Archie really doesn’t know but he only needs to know the Pembrooke will be empty for the next few hours. 

The door closes and they lock eyes, both slowly counting to sixty in their heads to allow a grace period in case Hermione comes back because she forgot something. 

When their mental timer is up, he lets out a relieved sigh when her index fingers hook around his belt loops and guide him by the hips back towards the couch.

“I missed you so much,” he confesses, letting himself be shoved into a sitting position and swiftly straddled by her before her lips attach themselves to his neck. They haven’t done this in a week. A  _ week _ .

“Are those just words or are you gonna show me?” she asks, pulling back and looking at him, silently challenging him to give her what they both want. He’s never backed down from her before he doesn’t intend to start now, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her into a steaming kiss. 

He thinks being bad at English is the best skill he has.

  1. Study dates (that are for studying). (Sort of).



Truthfully, she doesn’t need to study anymore for their History test, and also knows he doesn’t either. But the little system they have worked out… It’s just too fun.

Answer the question right, and then you receive a kiss wherever you want. It’s one of the only reasons she likes studying with Archie, since he isn’t the must studious person.

“When did the Civil War end?” she asks, not even glancing down at the textbook because she knows the answer and she loves how adorable he looks right now.

“May, 9th 1865,” he says, looking confident. She nods and he smiles, tapping his lips, eagerly leaning forward over their entangled legs to accept his reward. She kisses him softly, smoothing her thumb over the side of his neck. It lingers, holding him there a second longer before she playfully pushes his chest away.

He takes the book from her and asks the next question. 

“Who was president during the war?”

“Lincoln,” she says smartly, smiling and closing her eyes, waiting for him to kiss her which he does. The little toss of her hair over her shoulder tells him what she wants, and he happily kisses her pulse point, her favorite place to be kissed. 

He laughs when she kicks away the textbook and pulls him on top of her.

“Ronnie, I thought we were studying?” he asks, glancing up at her as she continues to tug him closer and closer.

“Shhh!” she forces his head back down into the crook of her neck. And he’s only human, all he can do is comply.

  
  
  


  1. Celebratory kiss after football game



Freezing in the winter air in her short skirt, but refusing to sit next to the outdoor heaters because she prefers the view from the sidelines, as close to the action as possible.

There’s always a bit of pride within her while watching Archie play, because she knows that everyone else knows that the tall, hunky redhead running around the field is  _ her _ boyfriend, in case the number nine stitched onto her uniform top wasn’t enough of a hint.

The crowd is in total uproar as the last few seconds play on the timer, and Archie with the ball rushes to score the points needed to win.

She lets out a loud breath when the buzzer goes off, not knowing she’d been holding it in. 

He’s just made it, she can spot her favorite number nine scrambling to his feet after diving into the end zone just as time ran out, scoring the winning touchdown.

She’s the first one he looks for, immediately blushing at her excited smile of approval.

Students rush the field as the Bulldogs all clap each other's backs at the victory. Archie’s at the center of it all, as the hero of the game, smiling widely and his hair matted down with sweat. She pushes her way through the crowd, her lack of height compared to the large football players make navigation difficult but once she’s within arms reach he’s quick to hoist her into his arms and allow her to shower him in kisses and praise.

She ignores any woof whistles from his teammates while she’s kissing him the way she wants, and the way he deserves after his win tonight. 

“You did it! I’m so proud of you!” she gushes, playing with his ears and feeling her heart grow at how happy he is. All he does is smile, pleased to be the only object of her affection. 

He puts her back on her feet, leaving to quickly shower and change so they can head to Pop’s, where they can spend the next hours in peace with a couple of milkshakes and a basket of fries, since it  _ is _ Archie’s turn to pick what they do for date night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed this not proofread mess :)


	4. eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It doesn’t take long for 8 year old Archie Andrews to figure out setting up a date was a lot harder than he thought, but he wasn’t going to give up now.
> 
> After days and days of convincing himself he could do it, and eventually blurting it out to her when he found out Reggie was going to ask her too, Archie approached quite simply the love of his life at the lunch tables to ask her to be his on Valentine’s Day.

It doesn’t take long for 8 year old Archie Andrews to figure out setting up a date was a lot harder than he thought, but he wasn’t going to give up now.

After days and days of convincing himself he could do it, and eventually blurting it out to her when he found out Reggie was going to ask her too, Archie approached quite simply the love of his life at the lunch tables to ask her to be his on Valentine’s Day. 

It was very scary, not because of Veronica though, because she always sits with Cheryl Blossom and she is scary. 

“Can we help you, carrot top?” she asks yawningly, waving an apple slice in her hand. Cheryl likes to make fun of his red hair, but his dad always told him you should treat others the way you want to be treated or something, so he doesn’t tell her she has red hair too.

“Um, Ronnie,” Archie offers her a makeshift bouquet of daisies he found in the grass. “Will you be my Valentine?”

Ignoring the scoff of disgust coming from Cheryl’s mouth, Veronica squeals and quickly accepts the flowers. She hugs him and when they pull away, he looks down at his shoes to hide his blushing face before quickly mumbling a thank you and retreating back to his own lunch pail. 

He told her he’d pick her up at lunch time, and asked her what her favorite food was so he (really his dad) could make it for her. 

“Sushi, specifically Umekyu.”

He tells her he doesn’t know if they have that but he’ll do his best.

Archie spends all morning getting ready. He cleans the dining room and washes the table with soap, assuming the smell of burnt toast isn’t the most romantic. He also calls him mom in Chicago, something he doesn’t do very often but it’s important, to ask if the fancy black table cloth she bought that his dad calls drab is still in Riverdale.

Thankfully it is, and as much as Archie agrees it’s not very colorful, he’s seen the fancy restaurant all the high school kids go to on dates and it has black table cloths and he needs to show Veronica he isn’t messing around.

Archie’s never paid too much attention to clothes, but decides on jeans, a collared shirt, and a bowtie for the date. Veronica is fancy, so he needs to show her he’s not some kid and that he can be too. He needs to show her she made the right decision being his Valentine and not Reggie Mantle’s.

He fails to pronounce the lunch Veronica wanted to eat when relaying the information to his dad, so he just asks him to make grilled cheese with the expensive brown bread instead of the one his mom used to say was made from styrofoam. 

He bravely walks to the Pembrooke twenty minutes before he said he’d be there, wanting to be punctual, and nods to Mr. Smithers in the lobby who tells him ‘Miss Veronica has been looking forward to today all week’.

Archie feels like throwing up when he gets to her front door, straightening his bow tie, he knocks on the door and anxiously waits.

Mr. Lodge is the one who answers, looking at him like some sort of villain out of a story book but Mrs. Lodge quickly follows, telling her husband to smile.

Veronica is waiting in the living room, looking every bit a princess in her maroon dress with a watching bow in her hair. Her little purse matches her shoes, which are almost as shiny as the pearls round her neck.

“H-hi, Ronnie,” he stutters, handing her the card he made Betty help him make since her mom has more craft supplies. 

“Thank you, Archiekins,” she chirps, brushing his hair off his forehead before clasping their hands together. 

Mrs. Lodge tells them to have fun, and Mr. Lodge adds not too much fun and to have her home before dinner time in a slightly joking manner. Archie gravely nods and promises he will, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot with his crush’s dad.

The walk back to his house isn’t long, and it feels even shorter than usual when she tells him all about how important today is since it’s their first date and how if he’s not a gentleman there won’t be a second one. It only makes him more determined.

“You look beautiful,” he says when they’re climbing the steps of his porch. “I forgot to tell you.”

Veronica hasn’t been to his house many times, if he sees her outside of school it’s usually at Betty’s since they’re best friends. Veronica has met Vegas though, and pets his head after his enthusiastic welcome.

“Hello, Mr. Andrews, you have a lovely home,” Veronica says professionally to his dad as if they’ve never met before which confuses Archie but he doesn’t say anything. 

“Hi, Veronica, it’s great to see you.”

Archie asks her if she wants to have lunch now and then leads her to his date set up in the dining room. He pushes her chair in once she’s seated before climbing into his own seat.

His dad, playing waiter like Archie asked him too, brings out their juice and grilled cheese. He thinks it's very mature of her how she eats it with a fork and knife.

Lunch goes well, afterwards they go to his room and he shows her his comic books and action figures, asking her who her favorite superhero is and why. 

She notices he has a lot of stacks of CDs, ones of his dads he likes to listen to, and tells him she thinks musicians are very enticing. He then goes on to admit to her he can play the guitar, a little bit, even though it’s hard since his dad’s guitar is almost as big as him.

When it’s all over, his dad drives them to the Pembrooke since it’s going to get dark soon and she holds his hand as he walks her to the elevator. 

“Goodbye, Archiekins. You’re the best Valentine a girl could ask for,” she promises, hugging him fiercely before kissing his cheek and walking off to return to her apartment. 

His little hand touches his cheek in shock, looking at Mr. Smithers silently asking if what just happened really did happen or if he just imagined it.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Mr. Archie.”

He practically runs back to his dad’s truck, needing to get home as soon as possible. Veronica’s into musicians, and he knows Reggie isn’t one. He’s going to write her the greatest love ballad Riverdale Elementary has ever seen.


End file.
